Mexican Hominy Ground Beef and Chili Bake

Mexican Hominy Ground Beef and Chili Bake:

You’ll get all of the flavor of a typical chili bake, but with the added taste and benefits of hominy. Grandpa Lake introduced our family to hominy many years ago. Although we don’t cook with hominy as frequently as we’d like, it is commonly found in many grocery stores. More than likely, you have seen or eaten hominy without even realizing it. Hominy is a staple ingredient using dried corn that is ground into grits. It is used to make masa harina, which is an essential ingredient found in corn tortillas and tamales.

What is hominy?

Hominy is made from a field corn, rather than sweet corn, and it goes through a special processing technique that adds some puff and chewiness to the kernel corn. As the dried corn is processed, the kernels swell and become more plump, tripling the size of the original kernel. The result is a complex and nuttier flavor that is a flavor in of itself. It also adds a delicious aroma to any meal. An added benefit of hominy is that it supposedly improves the nutritional content of the corn. This is something that I did not know when I first began cooking with hominy. Another interesting fact is that hominy is an ancient ingredient which has been processed since possibly 1500-1200 BC. Ancient Mayans processed the corn kernels to soften them first.

Using hominy today:

Today, the softened and chewy kernel known as hominy, gives any dish an additional boost of both flavor, texture, and nutrients. You often see hominy in soup and stew recipes. Some examples include pozole and menudo. Grandpa Lake adds hominy to soup, chili, and his favorite goulash recipes. So, that is how we are using hominy today in this Mexican Hominy Ground Beef and Chili Bake.

Method:

First, cook the ground beef and onion in a skillet until the meat cooks thoroughly.

Then, add in the garlic and let it sizzle for a minute or so. Fresh garlic would be amazing, and that is my favorite way to cook with garlic, but I used garlic that was already minced in a jar to save time. Either way, both will taste great, and the garlic gives another layer of flavor to the dish.

Next, drain the ground beef if needed, and then drain the hominy in the can. There are methods to soaking dried hominy (similar to cooking beans using dried beans), but when I cook with hominy, this is one instance where I do prefer to use the canned and already prepared hominy. As I mentioned earlier, it is readily available and simple to use in any recipe. Add the hominy to the ground beef mixture and stir it in.

After stirring in the hominy, add the tomato sauce and stir that in.

Add in the water. You can also add more or less water depending on your preference.

Sprinkle in some salt and pepper to taste. If you have a salt and pepper grinder, just a few twists will do the trick. You can also skip the salt if you want to altogether.

Add the chili in. Using chili from a can is a timesaver, but as you can see in this post – Ground Beef Chili Con Carne with Beans – Like Canned Chili, but Better and From Scratch, you know that I only buy canned chili once in a blue moon. Chili from a can is great, but we just don’t eat it much, which is why I like to make chili from scratch. As a timesaver, I would use chili in a can, but in this case, I whipped up a quick batch of homemade chili and added that in this Mexican Hominy and Ground Beef Chili Bake.

Next, transfer the entire skillet to a baking dish. As an option, you can top it with cheese and tortilla or corn chips. The chips are tasty on top of the chili spices.